October 31, 2011 11:36 am

That’s pretty much what Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said during the 20 minutes he took questions after his team’s 34-12 loss to Cincinnati.

Carroll was not only talking about his team’s poor performance, but his curious choice of going for it on fourth-and-two from the 3-yard line with 14 seconds left.

The Seahawks ran Marshawn Lynch up the middle on an inside draw, and he got the first down, but fell a foot short of the end zone. Without a timeout, the Seahawks could not stop the clock and a minor scrum ensued as Seattle tried to lineup, without success, to run another play.

So Seattle went into halftime down 17-3 and nothing to show for a good drive to end the first half.

“We learned about what happens when a coach gets hormonal and tries to freakin’ jam it down their throat for the touchdown there right at the half,” Carroll said about the play. “That was a mistake. It would have been a good call if we made it. But we didn’t.”

Carroll admitted his choice factored into the game because the Seahawks would have been down 17-9 instead of 17-6 in the fourth quarter if they had kicked the short field goal, needing only one score to tie the game.

Carroll said he’s still learning how to balance his aggressive nature with making the proper call in the right situation.

“It’s a bit little tough, because I have an attitude and a personality about how I want to do it,” he said. “But as we’re developing as a team, we’re not quite capable to take advantage of that yet. I have a lot of times where I’ve been in that situation, and it’s worked out. And it hasn’t a couple times here. And I don’t mind the scrutiny. It is what it is. I’m not worried about it.”

Carroll praised the play of Tarvaris Jackson, who finished 21 of 40 for 323 yards and an interception.

Carroll said the plan was to start Charlie Whitehurst and to hold Jackson out for another week if possible. However, when Whitehurst struggled to begin the game, Carroll decided to get Jackson in there to get the offense going.

“He could have used another week,” Carroll said. “So in my mind I knew that he could play. I was going to see if Charlie could pull it together and get something going and help us out, but it just didn’t feel like we were moving anywhere.”

Jackson entered the game to cheers from the CenturyLink Field crowd with 10:41 left in the half and Seattle down 10-3. At that point, Seattle’s offense has managed just 56 total yards. But Marshawn Lynch promptly fumbled on the first play, with Gibril Wilson recovering the fumble dnd Cincinnati taking over at Seattle’s 31-yard line.

Carroll went on to heap praise on Jackson, talking about how much of a big-time competitor he is, and also talking about Jackson growing with the offensive line and the receivers as the future of this team.

Asked to clarify what he meant by future, Carroll said he was referring to later this season.

“I’m talking about right now,” Carroll said.

Carroll also talked about Seattle’s mental lapses in the kicking game again, something that the team struggled with in the season-opening loss at San Francisco.

Seattle allowed 249 return yards, including a 56-yard punt return for a touchdown by Brandon Tate, and a 63-yard punt return by Adam Jones that set up a 14-yard touchdown catch by Jerome Simpson.

“That shocks me with the way we’ve been playing and how we’ve been growing,” Carroll said. “I don’t know how that happened. But we’ll figure that out, too.”

Carroll confirmed that Mike Williams had a tight hamstring, and that he was concerned if he would be able to make it through the game. Ben Obomanu started in place of Williams, finishing with four catches for 107 yards.

Jackson said he came through the game okay.

“My adrenaline is still kind of flowing a little bit so it’s not as bad,” Jackson said. “It’s not really that sore or anything right now.”

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Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

I don’t have a problem with the call at the end of the half, I do have a problem with him wasting that time out beforehand. THATS the issue, not the call.

Our Oline is still really bad. Carp is not impressing me but at least hes young and will hopefully get better. I can’t say the same for Gallery.

I’m really hating our play calling now, in fact I’ve hated it for several weeks. We should have had a ton of dump offs, quick outs, and screens called in this game. Not here and there, but every down. Our line couldn’t compete with their D line. Pushed backward all day.

WHat has happened to our kick coverage? Isn’t it about time to hold somebody acountable?

Man I hate seasons like this. Basically out of it before midyear and not bad enough to mean anyhting in the draft.

Even though PC didn’t draft Dalton, he should have had some developmental QB’s in here. Spinning our wheels with TJ and CW is ridiculous. We had just as well start playing Portis right now and see what he’s got.

When I consider that they were to get the ball again to start the second half, I hate the call to go for it at the end of the first half even more. That’s not being aggressive. That’s being foolish.

Can someone please explain to me why there were 5 more false starts in this game? We’ve been reading about false starts since the start of camp and they are still a major issue after two months into the regular season. Someone needs to be held accountable for them. Period.

Moo, I was also sceptical about TJ. There’s a night and day difference between his play in the first few games and his play in the last few. If he were Kevin Kolb and we had traded for him, everyone would be raving about him. He’s not going to be an elite QB, but he could turn out to be very good (he’s not there yet, but progressing steadily). So far, I’m pretty pleased with the two guys we got from the Vikings. The two we got from the Raiders, not so much.

Duke, when they went for it on fourth down, I thought it was a mistake, because if you fail, you give the other team a victory of sorts and lose some of your momentum. Kicking the FG gives you something positive to take into halftime and the second half. I also thought it was crazy that the Seahawks punted from the Bengals’ 36 yard line later in the game. It ended up being a touchback and they gained 16 yards on the punt (if I remember correctly). Poor coaching.

Isn’t James Carpenter supposed to be getting better as we progress through the season? Do we leave him at RT and hope he develops into a good run blocker and anywhere from a below average to an average pass blocker? Or do we get rid of the other bust (the old and injury prone one) we got and move him to LG like the coaching staff did prior to week one so Carpenter has time to develop some chemistry with Okung/Unger as we move to 2012?

Seriously, I don’t know the answer but I’m frustrated with the OL “play.” I expected bumps in the road, but I also expected to see more progress and flashes of good play up to this point than we have gotten. If anyone wants to solely blame Lynch for a lack of rushing yards, I think you need to go to the looney bin. Look how many times he was hammered in his backfield and the play was over before it even had a chance to start. It was a joke.

Maybe Carpenter needs to go to LG where he won’t have to be so bad in space in pass “protection.” Being in a confined area may be a benefit to him. I like his potential moving forward. You can tell it’s there, but I really question those feet. They seem too slow to developing into a good pass protecting RT, whereas it’s not as big of a deal for the feet to be that slow from LG.

Keeping Carpenter at RT will make us need to find a TE that is a block first type of player, as that player will need to babysit our RT in obvious pass rushing situations.

Maybe leaving him at RT is the answer. Again, I don’t know and am venting about the lack of progress from a unit that was supposed to be turning a corner by now…

Maybe Carpenter could be the guy to slam the black hole we’ve called left guard shut for close to a decade? Robert Gallery sure isn’t making me feel good about the situation.

I’m afraid the standards are falling too low for some of you guys on the QB front. Jackson looks nothing like a good QB. I have been pushing for Whitehurst but I am ready to accept that he will be nothing more than a backup (even though I think being pulled after the third series was ridiculous). But Jackson isn’t anything more than a backup either. “guts,” “toughness,” “balling,” etc. means nothing if you cant score points. Yards don’t mean anything if you don’t get the points. Jackson is not getting many points. Thats why I have no problem whatsoever with the 4th down call before the half. You need TD’s to win in the NFL, not FG’s (excluding the cleveland game…) Can’t wait to get a first round QB next year!

BobbyK – James Carpenter is 22 years old. He played only 2 years of major college football. In September, Carpenter was the youngest and least experienced player on the entire team.

Seems people have forgotten that already. Okung is 24, and Moffit is 25, and they are both still young and learning. No one has any idea how good Carpenter might be once he’s a 3-year vet at 24 years old.

So many penalties, total lack of a run game, terrible kick/punt coverage, and the awful 4th down call… I really feel like you really have to start questioning the coaching. When your leadership is sloppy and undisciplined, the players will be too.

Oh thats ok then. Pete has said sorry and apologised for getting hormonal. He also said he has been in the situation at the end opf the half many times before and it has worked out…. Not as a Seahawk coach Pete maybe in college.

With actions and comments like that it is no wonder this team isnt getting better. The team sees poor clock management week in and week out, the team sees poor use of TO’s and the team obviously doesnt get berrated for the drops, the non tackles and the meaningless full start and offide penalties.

Until Pete takes control of the team and by that I mean get tough and stop the rara we wont improve, the players need to know if they make a mistake they sure cant do it again and I just dont see that.

Keep blamiong they are young is no excuse, thats how Pete has set this team up with his roster moves and they are being paid as pro footballers so they must play to a pro level.

I agree with BobbyK the O-line is showing very little improvement and in the run game getting worse and you can see from lynch’s body language he is fed up with being hit in the backfield.

So please forget Twitter and the silly song of the day and focus everything on getting this team to practice and eliminate the silly mistakes so its ready to play at a competitve level on a Sunday.
Also get the Special teams coach on watch for the way our kick coverage has deteriorated and make this team accounatble, saying I am sorry only works if everyone buys in and everyone works hard to eliminate all the mistakes

Young, inconsistent, mistake prone….yep. That’s what we thought for this year, right ?

Now, the drops from multi-million dollar receivers/TE’s, that’s another thing. Especially disappointed in Rice and Miller putting balls on the ground. How TJ threw for 300+ yards with all of those drops is beyond me. That crap has to stop now. If I was PC, I’d bring those boys together and suggest another ball better not hit the ground for a very long time.

And has been mentioned….special teams…..arrrgggghhh!! Just a killer. Can’t happen. Just can’t happen.

Some of the penalties are also just stupid. I love Red but on 3rd and short you can’t jump offside. But I have a hard time getting upset with the defense, since they are actually putting in consistently solid efforts. Especially Red. Love ya big fella.

Oh, and someone tell Ryan that 70 yard punts are not nearly as cool as 45 yard punts that are fair caught.

Pre-snap penalties. They are fun for both sides. Someone should tell the offense what the count is and the defense where the brown oblong object called a football is hiding before every snap so they could perhaps keep an eye on it.

RADEoN – That’s a reasonable question. Taking the fact offensive players generally do take longer to develop than defensive (broad brush, obviously)out of the equation, I think he simply has a better eye for defensive talent. Especially corners and safeties, which is at the core of his defensive background. But yes, if you look at who he’s brought in, and has gotten to contribute, it’s really impressive: Clem and Branch and Hardgrove up front. Re-signing Hill, who we all thought was gone signals his recognition of D talent and capturing it. Browner. Drafting Wright and Sherman who are contributors now. Thurmond, Thomas, Chancellor… His eye for defensive talent is impressive and I believe that’s why he can find special players in middle rounds on that side of the ball. On offense? Clearly it’s not anywhere near as refined.

Offsides on Red looked like a False Start to me. Maybe some of you with the benefit of replay could help out, but our section was livid!

Sherman looked rocky to start, but that kid is good. I am a lot less concerned with losing WT3 after watching Sherman.

The crowd was roaring when Pete kept the offense on the field at the end of the first. So I feel like I can safely say the majority of the folks in the stands were behind the idea.

McCoy=Garbage… That is obvious, but that drop across the middle by Miller was a killer. It was a well thrown (not perfectly) ball that an average TE (see Donald Lee) would have caught.

Our OL is not good at pass blocking, but holy moses Charlie held that ball for a long time!

T-Jack is tough! I saw 2 different times that Pete tried to shuffle Charlie in for a T-Jack that looked hurt and T-Jack waived him off. Tough guy that I like to root for.

I think we have a major problem with Bevell. The play calling was not good, and I miss Bates. I hated the 3rd-1 fades as much as the next guy, but he utilized his players to their strengths. But what do we do with him? Fire him and hire a 4th OC in 4 yrs? (or 3rd in 3 yrs?) whichever it is, it isn’t good. If they are going to replace him it better be for a Norv Turner type OC. No sense in change for the sake of change. And I feel like that is what we got in Bevell. You can’t tell me that at the end of the year Pete said to John. “Hey John, you see Darrell Bevell got fired fired?! Hurry let’s can bates because Bevell is THAT great!”

The defense is good because Pete is a defensive coach that can find Def players that fit his scheme to a “T”. But he obvisouly needs some help on the opffesive side of the ball. That includes all phases: Game planning, Play calling, and Talent Evalutating.

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